You Can Only Think of God

[vovat]

I don't think separation of church and state is a particularly difficult concept. Apparently some people do, though, because they think religion dominates EVERYTHING. And this not only applies to matters such as science and government, but even entertainment. If a song isn't glorifying God, it isn't worth listening to! Now, I'm not saying there hasn't been a lot of great music that's been religiously inspired, but I get the impression that even most of that uses God as a base, not as the entire subject of the song.

My thought on this sort of mindset is that it's pretty archaic. In ancient societies, it was pretty much a given that most aspects of life concerned the gods, so it made sense to consult a priest if you wanted to heal the sick, predict the weather, or decide whether or not to go into battle. Since then, however, we've discovered more effective ways to do most of these things without involving religion. Medicine has proven to be a lot better than prayer at curing disease. And science has made many advancements in finding out how the world works. Even if there is some supernatural force behind it all, it doesn't have to be directly involved in day-to-day matters. So to say that schools should teach "God did it" as an alternative to evolution is essentially holding on to an outdated point of view, and willfully ignoring any advancements that DON'T directly involve religion. And yet these people (with some exceptions) don't avoid other such scientific knowledge. I mean, why are there TV shows espousing Creationism when television was a secular invention? Or do the makers of these shows believe that God is directly involved in sending television signals?

Also baffling is how some private schools claim to use the Bible as the ultimate source for everything. Does that apply even when the Bible is obviously wrong? I'm not necessarily even talking here about supernatural matters, but about simple historical facts. The book of Daniel says that Belshazzar was the son of Nebuchadnezzar, when in fact they weren't even related.

Even when the Bible was written, I seriously doubt it was intended to be the source for everything. If it had been, then why does it reference other books (most of which no longer exist, as far as we know)? For instance, the books of Kings keep making references to the Annals of the Kings of Israel and Judah, implying that not everything that needed to be said about these kings could be found in the Biblical record; it just provided an overview of the kings' reigns seen from the point of view of the priests. Yet even today, you'll see people who think the Bible has the answers to everything. Well, no, there are in fact a lot of hot-button issues that it doesn't address. But then, some people have taken it upon themselves to invent Biblical answers to things that aren't actually mentioned in the book, and sometimes even directly contradict it. I'm not sure Jesus would have been too keen on trickle-down economics, for instance, but I've seen a fair number of Christians promoting it. Why is that acceptable, but evolution and gay marriage aren't? People can believe in whatever religion they think makes sense, but I think we all have to realize that, in this day and age, not everything can be directly related to whatever faith you have. And really, what kind of creator would make an entire species with the full intention of having them do nothing but think about how great He is all the time?

Anyway, I know there are some mothers on my list, so happy Mother's Day! It's also Dewey's seventh birthday, and Constitution Day in Micronesia.

Comments

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

don't think separation of church and state is a particularly difficult concept. Apparently some people do, though, because they think religion dominates EVERYTHING.

What's funny is I DO consider my faith to be the Top Authority in my life, which is exactly WHY I support the separation of church and state! The government has no business telling me what I should or shouldn't believe, and I am surprised how many people of faith don't get that. Sure, it would be great if the government HAPPENED to endorse/push the exact same thing YOU happen to believe in, but statistically that's just not likely to happen! I'm sorry, right-wing Fundie "Christians," I DO consider myself a Christian, but I know if the government was run on the same brand of Christianity you push, I'D be branded a heathen saint-worshipper on basis of my professed religion alone; and if you factor in some of my actual opinions, some of which don't even mesh with my own Church's doctrine (let's TALK about gay marriage, shall we?), well, then I'd be considered downright evil, wouldn't I? Ah well.

As for the rest of it, I often think of the instruction to be "IN the world but not OF the world." This means to me that I ought NOT to be sequestering myself from secularness by watching/listening/taking part in only religiously-inspired (and by my own religion only at that) things, but that I should see what the rest of the world has to offer, but approach it from a Christian mindset and acting and reacting in a Christian way. Kind of like how, I've noticed, the more things I've come across that have challenged my faith, the stronger my faith has become, because they force me to really look at WHY I believe what I believe and all. I don't think sheltering oneself from those challenges ultimately helps a person's faith grow.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

What's funny is I DO consider my faith to be the Top Authority in my life, which is exactly WHY I support the separation of church and state! The government has no business telling me what I should or shouldn't believe, and I am surprised how many people of faith don't get that. Sure, it would be great if the government HAPPENED to endorse/push the exact same thing YOU happen to believe in, but statistically that's just not likely to happen!

Good point. I really don't get how so many people don't understand this. They want a government that promotes THEIR beliefs, but then they make alliances with Christians who believe some quite different things. And you'll get people talking about how they could have some generic prayers in school, as if such a thing exists. Yeah, I want to hear a prayer that applies to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and pagans (and that's not even bringing atheists and agnostics into the picture).

[kevenn.livejournal.com]

Ray and I have discussed this thing a lot recently, especially in light of some of the cast prayers we've been witness to - where phrases like, "We do this all you," and "We could not do this without you" were prevalent.

I am very uncomfortable about this notion because it is very detrimental to the self-esteem of people like me who can be very sensitive and experience a huge lack of confidence in myself because this bullshit notion was pounded into me from a young age.

I agree with Kathy Griffin, who mocked all the thanking of Jesus for awards. Like a deity has nothing better to do than determine the outcome of a football game or someone winning a People's Choice Awards - but all those people who died in the tsunami, tough luck...

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really does strike me as short-sighted for people to talk about God helping them through their minor problems when He's apparently doing nothing about more significant ones. When you get down to it, wouldn't you rather have God do something about famine and genocide than help you to win an award? Or are the award winners who thank Jesus just that selfish?

[vilajunkie.livejournal.com]

It's generally the award winners who are LEAST Christian-like too. Namely all the rap stars with mansions and expensive cars and "bling" and all that crap. Why aren't they sending that money to the people who need it, say, the families in the neighborhoods most of them grew up in? Oh, and not to pick on just "black folk"; plenty of white country stars with tons of money who sing about God/praise God could send that money to disaster-ridden environments as well. MORE than just at random charity events they're asked to appear at.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

But they're obviously rich because God favors them, and you wouldn't want to second-guess God, would you? :P